finite resources

Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans in the finite space of a planetary ecosystem as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.

-- Pardot Kynes, First Imperial Planetologist of Arrakis (Dune by Frank Herbert)

daydreaming

Think of a place I would go.
To where the sycamore grow.
I’m daydreaming
And oh, if you knew what it meant to me
To be where the air was so clear.
Oh, if you knew what it meant to me.
Anywhere but here.
-- Nona Marie Invie / Marshall LaCount (Dark Dark Dark) 2010

childhood lost

"As you can see, everything has just vanished. It's just like the whole thing has been completely erased from the face of the earth. I feel great anger. I feel massive sadness. It's like a complete loss of childhood...."
-- Morrissey, Top of the Pops interview (1983)

policy short-sightedness

"The fallacy of overlooking secondary consequences ... is the persistent tendency of man to see only the immediate effects of a given policy, or its effects only on a special group, and to neglect to inquire what the long-run effects of that policy will be not only on that special group but on all groups."
-- Henry Hazlitt, Economics in one Lesson (1946)

american kitsch

"If I'm in a very light mood, I find everything in America so kitsch. If I'm in a bad mood, I find it terribly repressive and heavy."
-- David Bowie (1973)

America rules!

"The American way of life is not negotiable."
-- President George H. W. Bush, Earth Summit (Rio de Janeiro) 1992

throwing stones

Picture a bright blue ball, just spinning, spinning free
Dizzy with eternity
Paint it with a skin of sky
Brush in some clouds and sea
Call it home for you and me

A peaceful place, or so it looks from space
A closer look reveals the human race
Full of hope, full of grace is the human face
But afraid we may lay our home to waste

-- John Perry Barlow (Grateful Dead) 1982